On a steep declivity of the Orontes are to be seen two tablets, each of which is divided into three longitudinal compartments, inscribed by the arrow-headed character of Persepolis. In the northern skirts of the city, Mr. Morier found another monument of antiquity. This is the base of the column, which we noticed just now; and this, Mr. Morier is equally certain with Sir Robert, is of the identical order of the columns of Persepolis, and of the same sort of stone. This, says Mr. Morier, led to a discovery of some importance; for, adjacent to this fragment is a large but irregular terrace, evidently the work of art, and perhaps the ground-plan of some great building; of the remains of which its soil must be the repository. Mr. Morier is induced to believe, that the situation of this spot agrees with that Polybius[223] would assign to the palace of the kings of Persia, which, he says, was below the citadel. Besides these, there are many other antiquities; but as they all belong to Mohammedan times, they do not come within the sphere of our subject. There are some hopes that this city may, one day, assume a far different rank than what it now holds;[224] for, within a few years, it has been created a royal government, and committed to the care of Mohammed Ali Mirza. Palaces, therefore, have been erected, and mansions for his ministers, new bazaars and mercantile caravanserais. We shall close this account with Sir Robert's description of the view that is to be seen from Mount Orontes, now called Mount Elwund. "It is one of the most stupendous scenes I had ever seen! I stood on the eastern park. The apparently intermediate peaks of the Courdistan mountains spread before me far to the north-west; while continued chains of the less towering heights of Louristan stretched south-east; and linking themselves with the more lofty piles of the Bactiari, my eye followed their receding summits, till lost in the hot and tremulous haze of an Asiatic sky. The general hue of this endless mountain region was murky red; to which in many parts the arid glare of the atmosphere gave so preternatural a brightness, that it might well have been called a land of fire. From the point on which I stood, I beheld the whole mass of country round the unbroken concave:--it was of enormous expanse; and although, from the clearness of the air, and the cloudless state of the heavens, no object was clouded from my sight; yet, from the immensity of the height whence I viewed the scene, the luxuriancy of the valleys was entirely lost in the shadows of the hills; and nothing was left to the beholder from the top of Elwund, but the bare and burning summits of countless mountains. Not a drop of water was discernible of all the many streams, which poured from the bosom into the plains below. In my life I had never beheld so tremendous a spectacle. It appeared like standing upon the stony crust of some rocky world, which had yet to be broken up